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Belgian PM breaks Verhofstadt’s popularity record: poll

Charles Michel has the trust of 71 percent of Flemish voters, the highest-ever approval rating for a Belgian federal prime minister, according to a new poll.

Michel’s approval rating topped the previous record set in 2008 by former prime minister and leader of the European Parliament’s liberal ALDE Group Guy Verhofstadt.

Verhofstadt’s government still holds the highest approval rating: In December 2006 his federal government had the trust of 58 percent of voters, while Michel’s government is currently at 56 percent.

Other parties in Michel’s coalition government, however, have seen support drop since the 2014 election: the Flemish-nationalist N-VA suffered a 5-percentage-point drop from its 2014 result (to 27.3 percent), the Flemish liberal Open VLD saw a 1.5-point drop (to 14.1 percent). The Flemish Christian-Democrat CD&V went up 0.6 points (to 19.1 percent).

Michel’s popularity with Flemish voters will not yield him much electoral benefit: The majority of Dutch-speaking voters can’t vote for the prime minister’s French-speaking liberal party MR. Michel’s approval rating in French-speaking parts of the country is lower, a national poll in January showed.

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Theodore de Jonghe

He is a good man and his coalition with NVA is good for Belgium regardless what the socialist sour pusses say . Of course less popular with the Walloons but not surprising from a people who votesocialist from father to son . Shows you the absurdity of the Belgian system you can not vote for ” national ” politicians . Absurd and profoundly undemocratic .